Exciting racing action in one go at the 2024 Swiss Motocross World Championship round

 

This year's MXGP of Switzerland presented by IXS had everything a motocross fan's heart could desire. The races for the 2024 Motocross World Championship on the Schollenholz/Swiss Sugar race track in front of 16,000 spectators in Frauenfeld were among the most exciting of the entire season. The big dominator in the MXGP class with two race wins was the Slovenian world championship leader Tim Gajser, while top Swiss rider Jeremy Seewer secured 4th place. Kay De Wolf won the MX2 class.

 

Heat on Sunday, a softened track after overnight rain on Sunday. Tim Gajser adapted best to the greatly changed conditions, was the big figure on the track in Schollenholz and was ultimately beaming all over his face. The Slovenian won both the Grand Prix Race 1 and its counterpart marked with a 2. As the second and third places in both heats also went to Jeffrey Herlings from the Netherlands and Jorge Prado from Spain, this could be seen as a certain monotony. But far from it. There were countless position and lead changes until the time came, causing the spectators to cheer again and again. Of course, the Grand Prix winner (overall classification of both races) was Tim Gajser, and Jeffrey Herlings and Jorge Prado also lined up to his left and right respectively at the podium ceremony.

 

Jeremy Seewer rides strongly

 

Local hero Jeremy Seewer would also have liked to be there, especially as he finally put in a really strong performance at his home race again this year after many minor problems. After finishing fourth and fifth in his heat, he was fourth on the day and commented: "I have positive and negative feelings. Fourth place is obviously solid. Especially when I look at the whole season so far, that was one of the better races. But fourth is just fourth. The podium would have been better, which would also have been possible. But not everything is going perfectly this year. I can't quite call up the performance that I actually have."

 

However, the 30-year-old from Bülach was completely satisfied with his home Grand Prix and said: "It was definitely a very cool weekend. The fans were incredible today. I think it's important for our sport that we have this event. The situation with a separate track and paddock is certainly not ideal, but I haven't heard anything bad about it from my fellow drivers. In any case, something like Frauenfeld is ten times better than some race in Indonesia or something like that. The Swiss GP is definitely on a different level."

 

Three Swiss MXGP riders in the points

 

As so often this year, Valentin Guillod from Fribourg once again put in a strong performance in Frauenfeld. He finished eighth in the first heat and fought his way up from 30th place after the first lap to eleventh in the second. This meant eleventh place for him in the daily standings.

 

Of the other Swiss riders in the MXGP, Geneva wild card rider Arnaud Tonus and, with a few exceptions, regular world championship participant Kevin Brumann from Ehrendingen also scored points in both heats. In the case of Arnaud Tonus, it was heat positions 15 and 17, which put him in 16th place on the day. Kevin Brumann finished 19th once and 15th once, putting him in 18th place in the GP classification.

 

The other Swiss wild card riders Nicolas Bender, Alessandro Contessi and Robin Scheiben received only slightly less cheers from the fair and knowledgeable red and white-clad fans. Loris Freidig suffered a broken collarbone in his harmless crash in the qualifying race on Saturday and was therefore out of the race.

 

 

 

 

Junior categories with Swiss players

 

Unfortunately, the MX2 World Championship category was held this year without any Swiss participation. The two races as well as the results in the top positions were pretty much all over the place until the leader of the standings, Kay de Wolf from the Netherlands, was finally crowned Grand Prix winner. He was flanked at the podium ceremony by Simon Längenfelder from Germany in second place and Liam Everts from Belgium in third.

 

The European Championship classes EMX250, EMX125 and MXE had already held a race on Saturday, so were only in action once on the classic race Sunday.

 

The up-and-coming EMX125 riders had the dubious pleasure of being the first to take to the track, which had been soaked overnight. Italian Nicolo Alvisi coped best with the difficult conditions. After finishing fifth on Saturday, he won the mud race and was therefore able to wave from the top step of the podium. Young Ryan Oppliger from western Switzerland struggled with the conditions and only finished 31st. Thanks to his 13th place in the first heat, he finished 20th overall. Noryn Pulsini did not see the chequered flag and Noe Zumstein did not compete in the second race. Tristan Blanc and Dany Henzer had already missed out on qualifying for the races on Saturday.

 

 

EMX250 - Greutmann with best result of the season

 

The Swiss EMX250 riders had more reason to celebrate. First and foremost, Nico Greutmann, who arrived from Merishausen in sixth place in the European Championship, achieved his best result of the season with fourth place. Together with his seventh place the day before, he also finished fourth in the overall weekend standings. Another rider from Freiburg, Luca Diserens, also finished well up front, namely in ninth place in Sunday's race and, together with his twelfth place yesterday, in tenth place overall. The twins Thomas and Samuel Oechslin climbed to 20th and 23rd place overall after finishing in the points today (14th and 16th). While Arthur Steffen also did not compete on Sunday, Remo Schudel retired after three agonizing laps.

 

 

 

The second planned race of the electric bike series for kids, the so-called MXE, was started, but as the deep track was absolutely unrideable for the little bikes and there were real dramas on the smaller hills, the race organizers had a change of heart and stopped the race. At least Saturday's race remained for the podium ceremony, so Austrian Ryan Gabriel was presented with the biggest trophy. Frenchmen Lucas Bos and Mathis Negre were honored on Sunday for their second and third places on Saturday. Samuel Mathys from Feuerthalen came sixth in his debut in this series on the hot Saturday.

 

OC President Läderach with mixed results

 

While the temperatures above 30 degrees on Saturday were too much of a good thing, the rain that lasted until the morning hours and the uncertain weather conditions that continued throughout the day certainly deterred a few potential visitors from coming. Ultimately, the total of 16,000 spectators on both days fell just short of the previous year's figure. "That's not enough and will lead to a loss," said OC President Willi Läderach, assessing this figure.

 

Nevertheless, the 83-year-old on the initiative drew a positive overall conclusion about the event itself. "From my point of view, we organized and carried out a very good event. The races were exciting, also due to the conditions. We would like to thank all the sponsors and partners as well as the helpers. The OC once again had 480 people on duty today. They all did a very good job."